Airport Plans Take Off

Skating Rink Loses To Grown-up Fun

BOCA RATON - — A dose of grown-up fun - film, music and books - will be added to the go-carts, golf and games that already make the airport area a hot spot for the under-20 set.

First Flight Entertainment Inc., a local business partnership, is negotiating with the Boca Raton Airport Authority to lease 8.5 acres, the last site available at the airport for non-aviation uses.

First Flight's plan: A specialty theater like IMAX, a Benihana's restaurant and a few stores where people can buy books and perhaps the latest Sheryl Crow CD.

In a 3-2 vote on Wednesday, the authority chose the First Flight plan over Boca Iceland Inc.'s plan to build a Wayne Gretzky's Iceland skating rink and a Champs restaurant at the site.

"They are going to tie the whole complex together and draw a broader base of people," said Frank Kneiser, who sits on the authority's board.

"We're trying to give the best of both worlds," said Mark Guzzetta of First Flight. "We want it to be family entertainment and financially sound for us and for the authority. It's a tough bill to fill and we think we can do it."

The project's cost: $9.5 million, he said.

First Flight hopes to have a lease signed by late January, and construction under way within a few months, so that the new complex can open next fall.

The First Flight project will further entrench the airport area as one of the city's leading entertainment districts.

The attractions at the airport include:

-- Boomers Family Recreation Center, which opened in June on a 12-acre site. Boomers has two miniature golf courses, a go-cart track, bumper boats, a roller rink and an extensive video arcade.

-- Boca Golf, which has a driving range and an 18-hole masters putting course on a 20-acre site.

-- Sun City Diner, scheduled to be built on a 4-acre site in 1995, will include a 200-seat dining room, 75-seat bar and a retail bakery.

Guzzetta said that First Flight might make room for a small skating rink on its site, if the group can make it work financially.

All this development is a boon for the airport and the city: The rents paid by the businesses to the authority ensure that the airport remains self-supporting.